HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we:
Explain a popular American song…
Tell about plans to re-create Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight…
And learn about female spies throughout history.
Women Spies
HOST:
A military women’s memorial near Washington, D.C., has a new showthat honors female intelligence officers. The National Women’sHistory Museum organized the show called “Clandestine Women: TheUntold Stories of Women in Espionage.” It demonstrates the braveryof women who served their country by spying. Bob Doughty tells usmore.
ANNCR:
Until recently, few people had heard of Virginia Hall. But thisAmerican woman made a difference in many lives. During World WarTwo, she helped rescue Allied servicemen trapped in areas occupiedby Germany. Later she organized local resistance fighters into teamsthat captured hundreds of German prisoners.
Virginia Hall did all thisalthough she had a wooden leg. Her own leg had been removed after ahunting accident.
Mizz Hall is one of a number of spies being honored at the Womenin Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Theshow tells spy stories from early American history to recent years.
African American singer Josephine Baker was another World War Twospy. She carried orders and maps from the French Resistance intocountries occupied by Germany. The orders were written indisappearing ink on pages of her music.
Famous cooking expert Julia Child also helped in the World WarTwo effort. She helped solve a problem for the United States Navy.Sharks had been swimming into American bombs placed underwater. Thebombs exploded before they could sink their targets – GermanU-boats. Julia Child created a substance that frightened sharks awayfrom explosives.
Women also served as spies in America’s earlier history. GeneralGeorge Washington used information from a spy known only as”Three-Hundred-Fifty-Five.” The number meant “lady” in the secretlanguage of American Revolutionary War spies. Harriet Tubman ledhundreds of slaves to freedom in the middle Eighteen-Hundreds. Afterthe Civil War began, this brave African American woman spied for theUnion Army.
Visitors to the spy show can also see some of the tools the womenused to spy. One is a small camera that was used to secretlyphotograph documents. Another is a cloth head covering that wasprinted with secret maps.
Lindbergh Flight
HOST:
The grandson of world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh is planningto re-create his grandfather’s flight from New York City to Paris,France, seventy-five years ago. He is flying a plane he calls theNew Spirit of Saint Louis. Mary Tillotson has more.
ANNCR:
Thirty-six-year-old Erik Lindbergh plans to leave New York on Mayfirst. He expects to arrive in Paris after twenty hours in the air.His grandfather flew the same distance in about thirty-three hours.
Charles Lindbergh left New YorkCity in his Spirit of Saint Louis plane on May twentieth,Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He landed at Le Bourget Aerodrome on Maytwenty-first. He was the first person to fly alone across theAtlantic Ocean without stopping. He became famous around the world.
Erik Lindbergh says he is making the same flight for severalreasons. He wants to honor the work and the memory of hisgrandfather on the anniversary of his famous flight. He also wantsto use the event to support the development of new treatments forthe disease rheumatoid arthritis.
Erik Lindbergh suffered from the disease for fifteen years. Hesays he always dreamed of making a flight like his grandfather’s.But he was not sure he could do it because of his health. A new drugis responsible for his good health today.
Erik Lindbergh also is making the flight to support the X PrizeFoundation. He is vice president of the foundation. It has offeredten-million dollars to the first private team to fly into space,return to Earth and do it again within two weeks. The competition issimilar to that of the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh formaking the flight from New York to Paris. The prize money wastwenty-five-thousand dollars.
Erik Lindbergh’s flight will be different from his grandfather’sin several ways. His plane is a modern, single-engine plane. But hisplane is smaller than the Spirit of Saint Louis. It has been changedto carry the extra fuel needed to reach France. He will have moderncommunications equipment to link the plane with a command center atthe Saint Louis Science Center in Missouri. And the public will beable to follow his progress.
An American cable televisionnetwork, The History Channel, is recording his adventure. It willbroadcast a special program about it on May twentieth, theseventy-fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight.
“City of New Orleans”
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. ZhengXiangyun wrote to ask about a song. The words say, “Good morningAmerica, how are you? Don’t you know me, I’m your native son.”
The name of that song is “City of New Orleans.” The song is notabout the famous city, but a train named after it. Many years ago,most of the major trains in the United States had names. They werefamous to the people who rode them. The “City of New Orleans” is oneof the last of these. The City of New Orleans still travels from themiddle-western city of Chicago, Illinois, to the southern city ofNew Orleans, Louisiana.
The train they call the City of New Orleans leaves Chicago,crosses the Ohio River at Cairo (KAY-roe) Illinois, and moves on toMemphis, Tennessee. It travels along the great Mississippi River andpulls into the Mississippi State capital in Jackson. It passes alongthe shores of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and into New Orleans.
The song called “City of New Orleans” was written by SteveGoodman in Nineteen-Seventy. The words are really a little sad. Whenhe wrote the song, the American railroad industry was disappearing.One part of the song says, “This train’s got the disappearingrailroad blues.”
Several singers have recorded “City of New Orleans.” One of themost popular recordings is by Arlo Guthrie. So, here is Arlo Guthriesinging the Steve Goodman song, “City of New Orleans.” And thanks,Zheng Xiangyun — we like the song too!
((CUT ONE: “CITY OF NEW ORLEANS”))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, PaulThompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Al Alavi. Andour producer was Paul Thompson.